Saturday, July 31, 2010

Megan and I rented a car and drove toward Peneda-Gerês. They have some very, very crazy roads.

Albufeira da Caniçada

Plaid shorts and a striped shirt. I'm a snazzy dresser!

Here's our Hyundai with such amenities as bike tires and a lawnmower engine. I really don't know how they even made this to have 4 doors.

Ok, so around this point we couldn't find a tourist center or anything. So, we saw another couple on the side of the road looking at a map and decided to ask them where they got a park map. They were Czech and didn't know where they were either. But, on their map was a tourist center. So, they invited us to follow them while they drove at high speeds around cliffs and hairpin turns with blind curves in their Peugeot. After a lot of going around in circles, we finally made it and got what we were looking for. The Czech guy asked us "Where in the US are you from" and we said Chicago. He got real excited and said "I love Married With Children." Excellent.

São Bento da Porta Aberta. This church had all sorts of people at it making pilgrimages and crawling on their knees and other stuff I've only seen on TV. We looked inside (we couldn't go it because I had shorts and Megan wasn't dressed like a lady), we've checked online and we still don't know what is in there that makes people go crazy about it. But, they do... Oh also, the national park trail that apparently starts here, doesn't and no one has ever heard of it.

A church in a holding pen

Wind power

These were massive windmills. Each blade seemed to be a wing off a Boeing 747 or larger.

You know those little Smart bubble cars? Here's their sports coupe.

As some of you may know, there's been some financial issues in Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal tied with the global financial meltdown. This is a protest outside our hotel, Mercure Porto Centro, the the Praça da Batalha (Battle Square), which is usually where old guys and little girls on bikes hang out. The protest is against cuts the government intends to make.

King Pedro IV again on the Avenida dos Aliados

Shopping area near the college

Jardins do Palacio de Cristal (Crystal Palace Gardens)

A sports and concert arena in the park

crazy angular pine tree

Peacock running toward me. With my history of birds in Portugal, I did get a bit nervous.

But, he only wanted food and left as soon as he realized I didn't have any...

View of Porto looking toward the Atlantic Ocean. Pretty much the only "weather" we saw the whole time and it was just low clouds and a much appreciated cool breeze

Porto toward the Douro River valley

A little church in the park

child choking a bird

A hollow tree. If this were in Chicago, someone would live in this tree...